I hate kids and don’t want any. I have never in my life fantasized about having children, and considering the above-mentioned mental health concerns I believe that reproducing would be an irresponsible and cruel thing to do. Additionally, I do not enjoy the company of children or find their inquisitive natures endearing. When I am near kids I mostly want them to stop existing. If for some reason all my instincts take a 180 degree turn and the proverbial biological clock that my elders constantly warn me about kicks in, and I suddenly start yearning for the smell of crap-filled diapers and the loss of 2+ decades of my social, emotional, and financial stability, I’d rather adopt. Besides, pregnant women are smug.

I’m mostly liberal in my beliefs. I believe that a woman’s body is hers alone and so she has the final say in what happens to it. I believe that teachers don’t get enough support for the shit they put up with (though I also have conflicting misgivings about the education system, having fallen through its cracks myself). I’m a big advocate of free speech, even if I don’t like what someone has to say. I see freedom from religion as a greater priority than freedom of religion.

I believe that ideas and opinions are not exempt from criticism just because someone might get offended. I believe that comedy is harmless and should not be censored even if the jokes are potentially hurtful (as a survivor of sexual assault, I think banning rape jokes is dumb). I believe that when you subscribe to a belief or “truth” that you better have peer-reviewed evidence to back the claims you make. I believe that you should love your body, and that part of that loving should include taking care to stay healthy. I believe that a person’s past is less about defining who that person is and more about helping them decide who they want to be.

I’ve never really bought into religion at all. In the summer before grade 7 a wealthy, religious neighbor tried to take me under her wing and sent me to a Christian summer camp. I thoroughly disliked the whole experience with forced bible studies and “chapel in the sky” (we had to trek part way up a mountain every night to praise a concept I didn’t even fully understand at that age). In the past few years I’ve found my voice as an atheist and regularly post memes about the hypocritical nature of religion but never really have serious talk because frankly I am pretty sure everyone in my social bubble is sick of my aggressive stance on things. I try to spread love as much as I can by sharing positive messages from the skeptic community and encouraging my friends to donate to humanist organizations in lieu of gifts.

Living in Vancouver, Canada, I’m in a strange blend of yuppie and hippie culture, where $60 yoga pants are acceptable but god forbid you don’t eat a diet of exclusively organic, non-GMO, vegan foods. I am surrounded by conspiracy theorists who attack conventional medicine and believe that the negligible amounts of minerals added to pink salt will make you healthier but the equally negligible amounts of cyanide that occurs naturally in fresh food or formaldehyde found in vaccines is going to kill you. I see people misspeaking, misquoting, and misrepresenting things on a daily basis and sometimes it leads to the decision to skip chemo and instead do a juice cleanse. I am tired of seeing degrees from Google University touted as superior over repeated peer-reviewed studies of large sample groups. Pseudoscience is a deeply disturbing trend and while it may be fun to poke and laugh at it, it’s only a distraction from the fact that it harms people financially at best and physically/psychologically at worst.

So, basically: hello, I am a cranky old man living in a twenty-something woman’s body and I’d love the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue with like-minded people and offer support to those who don’t have the freedom of opinion that I do.